I was fascinated to know about and understand different cultures and I always hunted for ways of doing it. I then realized that learning a language will help me better understand a new culture. Then I decided to learn Spanish for my CAS experience as it will give me great insights into the Mexican culture. I decide to learn Spanish till A1 proficiency level which corresponds to being able to communicate in everyday situations. I decided to learn Spanish through a free service called Duolingo which I selected after thorough research. The service improved my speaking, listening and comprehension skills in Spanish.

I identified my strengths and developed areas for growth through this CAS experience as I identified my strengths and weaknesses in Spanish. I was good at understanding Spanish text and translating it to English, However, I was not very great at translating English text to Spanish. Working on my weakness helped me improve my overall Spanish skills as I was able to perform all the basic tasks and communicate with limited vocabulary in Spanish. Although, I did not pay much attention to the speaking part of learning Spanish which I now regret as I am not able to pronounce certain words in a conventional way.

I demonstrated that I have undertaken challenges through this CAS experience and I developed new skills in the process. It was challenging for me to learn Spanish as an English speaker as Spanish has different pronunciations and grammar rules than English which made it difficult for me to comprehend Spanish text. I overcame this challenge by learning all the grammar rules every day and I was able to understand the grammar after a few days. It is important for me to undertake new challenges as it develops new skills as we do something that we are not very familiar with.

I demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience as I organized my workload by dividing it over a set number of days. It was not easy for me as I am not usually an organized person, however, organizing my work increased my productivity to a great extent. The experience from this activity will make planning and organizing easier for me in the future. I also realized that it is important to plan and organize CAS activities as it enhances the activity’s effect.

I showed commitment and perseverance to learning Spanish. It was difficult for me to stay committed to learning Spanish every day as I found some parts of the learning process to be a bit tricky which slowed down my progress and discouraged me. However, my commitment to complete the activity helped me develop new skills; this made me that staying committed is very important.

I developed the learner profile communicators through this CAS experience as I learned to communicate in a different language which improved my communication skills as I will not be able to express my ideas in different ways. I also developed the learner profile Open-Minded as I appreciated different cultures through the process which learning Spanish. This activity is connected with the IB subject language acquisition as I perceived and comprehended a new language. My learning in this activity can help the community as I will be able to make deeper connections with other cultures which will help me create a better bond with others. I achieved success and it made me feel great as I acquired the skill to learn a new language and this skill will further help me when I wish to learn other languages. I learned that learning a new language is not an easy process as it requires a lot of perseverance and commitment. If I did the same activity again I will try to focus equally on all the aspects of a language which includes speaking, listening and reading.